Abstract
Background
About 11% of US households are food insecure, and many of those households seek charitable
food assistance (CFA). However, little is understood about the nutritional composition
of the diets of households receiving CFA, or the relationship between CFA and Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) usage among low-income households.
Objective
The aim of the study was to compare the nutritional quality of foods obtained by CFA
clients to those of similar nonclients. Furthermore, the study examined the timing
of CFA use relative to the timing of SNAP use among CFA clients during the week.
Design/participants
Analyses were conducted using 2012 US Department of Agriculture National Household
Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), which collected data for 4826 households’
food acquisitions during a 7-day survey week. Sixty-seven households reported using
CFAs during the survey week.
Main outcomes measure
The nutritional quality of food was measured by the ratios between food acquisition
quantities and the US Department of Agriculture Thrifty Food Plan consumption recommendations.
The date of SNAP use was compared with that of CFA use for CFA clients who were also
SNAP recipients.
Statistical analyses performed
Propensity score matching was utilized to construct a matching sample of CFA clients
and nonclients. T tests were used to compare the means of variables.
Results
CFA clients were more likely to be food insecure (48% vs 28%, P < .001) and less likely to have access to a car (61.2% vs 84.8%, P < .001) than CFA nonclients. CFAs represent an important source of foods for CFA
clients, taking up 28% of their total food at home acquisitions. CFA clients obtained
more nonstarchy vegetables than matched nonclients. Furthermore, among the 45% of
CFA clients who also participated in SNAP, the majority (52.4%) of them used SNAP
benefits within 10 days of SNAP benefits distribution while most (67.9%) of those
households used CFAs starting on day 11 or later after SNAP benefits were allocated.
Conclusions
CFAs provide a substantial portion of the diets of their clients and, in particular,
for foods that constitute components of healthy diets. For the proportion of CFA clients
who received SNAP, this study finds evidence that CFA clients relied more on CFAs
when their SNAP benefits were likely to run low.
Keywords
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Biography
L. Fan is an assistant professor, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Biography
C. Gundersen is a professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Biography
K. Baylis is a professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Biography
M. Saksena is an economist, Office of the Chief Economist, US Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 18, 2020
Accepted:
July 27,
2020
Received:
May 18,
2019
Footnotes
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT We gratefully acknowledge financial support through Cooperative Agreement No. 58-5000-1-0051 between the University of Illinois and the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This research was also supported in part by the intramural research program of the USDA, Economic Research Service. The views expressed in this article are of the authors and should not be attributed to those of the USDA.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS L. Fan, C. Gundersen, and K. Baylis designed the research; L. Fan and M. Saksena conducted the research and analyzed the data; L. Fan, C. Gundersen, K. Baylis, and M. Saksena provided expertise in outcome assessment and data interpretation; L. Fan and C. Gundersen wrote the manuscript and have primary responsibility for final content; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
